


Knife Monopoly would have been more Fun

by QueenOfALotOfDifferentWorlds



Series: MCU Crack Fics [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (I would never), Angst and Humor, Blood and Injury, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Crack, Don't believe a thing you see here, Even if I psychologically scar all of them and us, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, Happy Ending, Hurt Avengers, Hurt Tony Stark, I REGRET NOTHING, I mean I wrote it and I basically live here, I mean it. The Burn is SLOW, I swear, Idiots in Love, Injured Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Kidnapped Tony Stark, Kidnapping, M/M, Mystery, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Post-Avengers (2012), Protective Avengers, Protective Bruce Banner, Protective Clint Barton, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Sarcasm, Seriously its Crack, Slow Burn, Stephen Strange mentioned - Freeform, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Team as Family, They think the other died, Tony Being Tony, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, cursing, hunting heroes isn't either, hunting humans isn't a sport, injured Tony Stark, kidnapped avengers, like very slight, privat island, slight defamation of fanfic, surprisingly plot heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26617756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfALotOfDifferentWorlds/pseuds/QueenOfALotOfDifferentWorlds
Summary: Kidnapped and carried off to an island, Tony Stark knows this day will only get worse. He has no idea how right he is.Sass, Trauma, Mythological Creatures, Happy Ending.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Clint Barton & Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers, Tony Stark & Avengers Team, Tony Stark & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, pre Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: MCU Crack Fics [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1836838
Comments: 83
Kudos: 117





	1. After this, Tony might sell his private island

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MagicalLeprechaun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalLeprechaun/gifts).



> There is basically no excuse for this. I blame it all on MagicalLeprechaun who basically gave me the idea in a comment. Thanks, so much and let us all suffer together!
> 
> You don't need to read the other installments before this, but it will imply stuff that happened in the Fic before this one, just FYI
> 
> (This makes two chapters in one day twice in a row... don't get used to it...)
> 
> Oh and to the surprise of all: I’m not owning Marvel and don’t make money off of this.

The whole mission had been a cluster fuck from the get go. Sweating and cursing under his breath, Tony ran like hell itself was on his heels. Or worse: Pepper with a vengeance.

It was only the third time he was allowed to get into the Iron Man suit after his last cluster fuck – which had totally not been his fault! – and of course the maniac of the day not only used magic – fucking magic – no, she teleported all of the Avengers onto her private island to hunt them for sport.

She told them so. Over the speakers all over this tropical island that Tony was absolutely certain didn’t exist on earth – or was at least cut off from it somehow. This was some freaking Hunger Games rip off and Tony had it.

Worse still, tech didn’t work here. At all. Not their comms he had designed. Not the high-tech weapons. Not even his _suit_. Tony was fuming and if the asshole stepped in front of him, he would kill her with his bare hands out of cold principle.

If all of that wasn’t bad enough the asshole had split them up, probably dropping them all over the island and as luck had it, he had been kidnapped – of course – and strung up like a doll on a stone wall in a castle ruin – which had no right to be on this island, which was actually one of the clues making Tony think all of this was somehow fabricated.

Cap had found him before their kidnapper could return, rescued him – which was as flattering as it was embarrassing – and since then they were running through the humidity that made it hard to breath. At least it made it hard for Tony. It also made his hair curl and that was even worse.

Because Tony had been in the armor, he wore nothing more than a thin undersuit. No shoes. Because who needed shoes while running through something that for all Tony knew, was a poor copy of the rain forest. He wasn’t a botanist, okay?

Steve made another sharp turn right in front of him and Tony struggled to follow Captain America who was faster, could actually breath and wore combat boots. Fine branches slapped him and he hissed when something with thorns ripped at his sides, arms, legs and – actually they ripped at all of him.

Nature sucked.

He was about to tell Steve that, but for that he would have needed to have oxygen. He hadn’t.

“You okay, Tony?” Steve glanced over his shoulder, slowing his tempo a little to lessen the distance between them. So that Tony could have a chance keeping up with him.

“…aces…” Tony wheezed, praying to every entity that might or might not exist to just end his suffering right here and now.

“Just a little further.” The concern in the blue eyes grew and Tony would have snapped at him to fucking quit it – if he had the breath for it. This got old fast.

A couple minutes later Steve slowed down. He was barely out of breath and Tony hated him for it. He himself was wheezing hard enough he probably would have thrown up if he managed it. He – thankfully – didn’t. Instead, he planted his hands on his thigs and tried to get enough lungs in his oxygen. Enough oxygen in his lungs. God, he hated this day.

“Breathe.” A big warm hand was on his back, rubbing soothing circles and the only reason that Tony didn’t kill the super soldier right there and then was his traitorous body that relaxed under the touch.

“Okay?” Cap asked as soon as Tony was able to breath more easily. There were still dark spots dancing in front of his eyes but they had lessened considerably.

“Peachy.” He stood up, inhaling, holding for a second and exhaling slowly. “So, where are we?”

“I’ve got no clue.”

“Awesome.”

“Not so much.”

“The others?”

“Haven’t seen them.”

“Great.”

Cap shook his head, frustrated. “We don’t even know who forced us here!”

“A nut job, obviously.” Tony dismissed, turning in a circle to take in the surrounding environment. It took him almost a minute to realize what was missing.

“It’s too clean.”

“What?” Steve turned towards him, worry still written all over his face.

“Look around.” Tony indicated the grass, the trees, the flowers. All of it.

“Okay?” He looked around. “It’s a forest.”

“Yes, like the Hollywood version of a forest.” Tony stopped. “I know next to nothing about nature” wasn’t that the truth, “but all this?” He threw his arms open, indicating everything around him. “There is grass on the ground. Only grass. No moss, no disturbed places. We haven’t seen one insect yet. Not one. In something that looks like the romanticized version of the rain forest?” Bruce would be so proud that he had actually listened to those documentaries he had forced him to watch.

Steve frowned. “There are no noises.”

Shit. He was right. It was eerily quiet. Not even a single bird was singing.

“What is going on?” Steve turned towards Tony again and his fair complexion went pale.

“Tony!” He yelled taking a step forward but before he could do anything else Tony was hit with something full force and flung through the air, hitting a tree with his side.

Biting back on the pained scream, Tony made himself move. Agony raced through him as he moved his rips and tried to burden his right hand. It didn’t matter. Looking up, and fighting the spotty vision, he saw Steve fight a… was that a fucking griffin?

Steve, no, Captain America grabbed his shield, throwing himself between the not really existing mythological creature – that had an impressive sharp beak and lion claws and was at least twice the size of Tony – and Tony.

“Cap!”

“Get out of here, Tony!”

“Not without-”

“I’m faster than you! Just get out-” He was interrupted when the griffin jumped forward, attacking him with his claws. Was it a he? Not the point.

Looking around Tony cursed this fairytale forest because there was not even a branch lying around, nothing to help Steve. Nothing to protect him with. Of course, Tony wouldn’t mind throwing himself between Steve and that beast, but he was almost certain the soldier wouldn’t really be appreciative about it.

Cap, the noble idiot, flung his shield at the beast. As if it had been waiting for it, the griffin knocked it out of the air with a paw before striking lightning fast, ripping a long wound in his left arm.

“Steve!” His cry was drowned out by a screech that was part eagle, part lion as far as Tony was concerned, and wholly pissed off.

The beast in front of them made an answering cry, shaking his head in an annoyed fashion. Blood dripped from its yellow beak in a colorful contrast. Okay, so maybe Tony had another concussion. God, the others would never let him get out ever again.

Steve had retreated, pressing down on his bleeding arm, eyeing his Shield that was out of his reach – and not the problem at the moment.

“Steve!” Tony pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain pulsing along his side. “We have to-”

It was that moment that the other griffin, a smaller one, stalked out of the trees right beside Tony. The pale-yellow eyes fixated on him not hiding its hatred whatsoever. Could eagle eyes be full of hatred? Tony didn’t know, but griffins could pull it off without a hitch.

“Fuck.”

Steve glanced from his griffin to the one eyeing up Tony. There was desperation in his eyes when he looked at Tony, basically pleading him to not do something stupid.

He was going to do something stupid.

“You take the big one I’m taking care of Stuart Little over here and we meet up in what, thirty minutes?” Tony forced his voice to be light. Steve was almost panicking already and that wouldn’t help him one bit in his fight. Tony had no doubt whatsoever that Steve would win.

“Tony…” There was pleading in his name and a command.

“As if some bird-wanna-be can kill me.” Tony let a deadly smile slip onto his lips. No one had managed it until today and some chicken wing certainly wouldn’t change it.

“Thirty.” He repeated before he turned and ran as fast as he could straight into the thickest bushes behind him.

The beast screeched again and Tony would have sworn it had a delighted undertone, while the crashing behind him started.

Ignoring the pain, the searing agony when he tried to breath and the ice-cold fear in his stomach because he was leaving Steve behind, he forced himself to run faster. Dodging low hanging branches. Jumping over stones and barely brain himself on another one.

Every step rattled his injuries. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. Actually, he was surprised he had been able to run as far as he had already. Stumbling, he caught himself with his right hand and couldn’t bite back a yelp of pain.

Forcing himself to keep running, he tried to guess the distance of the not-existing-bird-lion-hybrid that was trying to have him as a snack, but failed miserably without Jarvis and more data how sound behaved in this unknown terrain. Give him some streets of New York and he’d be able to tell you exactly how far away the thing currently trying to skin him was, but in a forest? He needed more than just his ears.

And even if he knew that, how could he know it would work in this place?

He pushed himself through a bush, biting back another cry of pain – and then of dismay. There was a stone wall right in front of him. One glance upward made two things abandonly clear: Firstly, he wouldn’t climb that. It was too smooth even if he had two working hands (and griffins could fly). Secondly, they really were in some Battle Royale scenario. There was just no way this mountain was real. He hadn’t seen it before almost running into it, there was no sign of weather marks, of natural decline and it seemed to go on forever in all directions.

His musings had cost Tony precious seconds. Starting to run again, he hoped to every entity out there that Steve was fine. That he had been able to get the shield or got out of there. Or even better: He got the Shield and got out of there.

He was so concentrated on Steve, he almost missed the gab in the smooth massive stone wall. It was a split of a heartbeat decision. He ran past it.

This was too easy. It seemed too perfect. Whatever was going on, Tony was certain someone was manipulation reality around them. That meant not only that he couldn’t trust the terrain (perfect) it was possible that if he met with his teammates they wouldn’t be themselves either.

This just got a lot more interesting.

The next screech of the griffin sounded closer. This, of course, could be because of the stone to his right throwing the sound back better. Tony didn’t believe he was that lucky.

Fighting against the black spots in his vision, he almost missed the next gab in the wall. It was just a little wider, the stone around it a little lighter than the anthracite. It had basically a sign _enter here_ above it.

As if one cue the beast screeched again, even louder and more aggressive than before.

Not chancing it, Tony didn’t look back. This felt too much like a set-up, or a horror flick from the eighties. He would have bet his suit that he would stumble as soon as he moved his head.

If he was right – and he too often was – that did give him somewhat of an advantage. At least if he could avoid the obvious tropes. On the other hand, whatever happened here could change any second. (He would do anything to not end up in a hospital drama.)

Worse still, Steve didn’t have a clue about eighties horror movies. Or horror movies altogether. He wouldn’t be able to recognize the signs. He would see the tactical advantage of a cave to hide in and do it. There was just no telling what-

Fuck.

Whatever or whoever was doing this had obviously had enough. Out of nowhere the stone wall – in a 90-degree angle, Tony might add, that just _couldn’t be_ of natural origin – made a dead end he was running into. To his right, the only way left to him, was a thick undergrowth with multicolored thorns that screamed poison or acid or whatever hell the sick fucker had planned for Tony.

The worst part was the gab literally welcoming him in with almost white markings all around it. Did they think he was that blind or stupid that he hadn’t seen the other entrances? Or maybe they thought it would be more appealing like this?

Coming to a stop right in front of the entrance, he turned. It wasn’t really a contest, getting eaten by a bird or getting into whatever was waiting inside of the cave.

The bird would win any day.

Even if it was a griffin with an expression as if Tony himself had cursed his very existence. Maybe he had. Maybe it had been created solely to hunt him. That was a depressing thought.

If someone asked him it was his rebellious streak. He wouldn’t play the game someone wanted him to play. He was Iron Man! He would make his own game and force _them_ to play _it_.

It absolutely had nothing to do with the lingering terror that was the reoccurring memories of _that_ cave.

The griffin – that was still suspiciously far away, stalked closer, his predatory eyes fixed on Tony.

Trying to get his breathing under control – breathing through pain was almost a hobby by now – he glared back at the creature.

“You could have killed me long before. Why didn’t you?” He asked, ignoring the huffs between the sentence.

The bird didn’t say a word – could griffins talk? He wasn’t sure. But it did seem to menacingly grin at him. He also wasn’t sure if they could do that, but it did.

“Come on!” Tony yelled, biting back the wince when it hurt like a bitch. He was sure it was only a matter of time until a rib would pierce his lung. “What do you want?” He risked a glance toward the perfectly blue sky.

Suddenly the griffin was in his face. It could have never moved this fast without making a sound. Not naturally. If they were real and all of this was real, of course.

Tony stood his ground, glaring back at the creature. There was a 73% chance whoever did this wanted them alive, wanted to play with them and-

The griffin lifted his paw and before Tony could react, backhanded him into the cave entrance, leaving him another reminder of it’s hospitality by clawing his – until that moment – uninjured side.

He crashed into the wall, screaming in agony. The cry echoed through the darkness as if it was mocking him. He couldn’t even stand his ground to a bird.

As soon as he could move, he looked towards the entrance. Most of it was covered by the griffin supposedly trying to get into the cave. One clawed paw scratching at the earth just inches from his vulnerable skin.

As if Tony would belief for one second that was more than an act.

“I’m in the cave. What now?” He croaked, trying for sassy. He failed miserably. Rolling on his back, he had to bite back another scream. A whimper escaped him nonetheless.

He dismissed the growling beside him. It had its chance and blew it. No. It had done everything to get him into the cave and now stopped him from getting out again.

While he worked on his breathing, Tony focused on his next tasks. Whoever had dragged them here, had done so with all of them. He clearly remembered all of them being pushed into the portal. That meant he had to find not only Steve but also Nat, Clint, Bruce and his honeybear – who had filled in that day because Thor was off world again. Maybe Clint was right, they would have to talk to him about his timing.

Exhaling shakily, Tony tried to push himself up. He failed. The whimper that escaped him was too miserable to be acknowledged as being real. Biting his teeth together, he tried again, and failed again.

“Fuck.”

The others needed him. Even if Steve was safe – and he didn’t know that – and even if Bruce was safe – and he didn’t know if he could Hulk out here, or what it would mean for him if he couldn’t – and even if the spy twins were safe – which was probable but no damn guaranty – Rhodey was just as human as he was. Sure, he had the superior training but without his tech he was almost as vulnerable as Tony (not that he was vulnerable, but writhing in pain he might admit he was human) and he wasn’t as used to all this shit like the others.

“Come on.” He murmured, hissing in agony when he pushed himself backwards until he hit the cave wall. Using all of his remaining strength he used it to force his battered body in a sitting position.

“Knew I could do it.”

Blinking, he glared at the griffin. It still snarled and pawed at him but the heat was gone, as if it had served its purpose. What the fuck was going on?

“Hello?”

His head twitched to the side.

“Clint?”

“Tony?”

There were running steps. Probably two people. That was good. Although they wouldn’t be too pleased to find him on the floor looking like he lost against, well, a griffin.

Trying to summon every last bit of his – to be honest – stubbornness he tried to force his useless body to stand up.

The agonized yelp when all he accomplished was to rattle his body once more was even more humiliating then being found slacking on the job.

“Tony!”

That was Bruce’s voice, desperate and worried, but without a hint of the Other Guy. This just got better and better.

A flicker in his peripheral vision motivated Tony to look into the tunnel. Seconds later, Clint (who was flat out running by now) stormed around a corner, clutching a torch.

“Shit.” The archer cursed as soon as the light touched Tony and even if he wanted to protest, because that wasn’t very polite, he had no leg to stand on. Literally.

Clint reached him first, handing the torch back to Bruce, who looked like he was already categorizing all of Tony’s injuries, he grabbed him carefully to pull him away from the entrance. It worked, even if Tony couldn’t bite back the pained whimpers.

“Christ, what happened to you?”

“I’m fine.” Tony panted.

“Clearly.” Without waiting another second, Bruce got to work, gingerly patting Tony down while Clint held the torch close enough into Tony’s face to not only sing his hair but also make him cough. Which resulted in a lot of cursing (Clint), hands trying to steady him (Bruce) and tears leaking out of Tony’s eyes (because of the smoke).

“Fuck, I’m sorry.”

Tony would have snapped at him, if he had the air to do it. This had already gotten ancient.

“We have to get him deeper into the cave.”

“…no…”

“Tony, we have to.”

“It’s their…plan. Don’t.”

“What plan?” Clint asked, suspiciously. “Isn’t this just a nutter off his rockers?”

“Probably.” Tony inhaled carefully, trying to sound as if he wasn’t breathing fire. “But I think they want us to play their game.”

“They usually want that.”

“Not like that, birdbrain.” He hissed, when Bruce pressed down on his ribs. “The forest was wrong. The griffin-”

“We had a run in with a fifteen-foot long lizard.”

“That fits the MO.”

“It does?” The archer asked, leaning back into the wall, clearly trying to distract Tony from Bruce’s painful examination. Not that his science bro would ever try to hurt him. Tony knew that. Still, it was hard to not snap at him to stop the probing. He couldn’t do a damn thing anyway, why bother?

Tony opened his mouth to response when he was interrupted.

“Avengers!” An excited female voice exclaimed ecstatically.

Clint jumped forward raising the torch higher, while Bruce basically threw himself before Tony.

It took Tony all of two seconds to locate the speaker wedged into the right left corner of the cave passage.

“I’m happy to announce that the groups are complete now! You lost one of your leaders already, so don’t bother looking for him.”

Tony went cold. The icy terror that had been lurking in his gut since he left Steve behind to save his worthless life swept him up, drowning him in emptiness.

He didn’t hear a word after that.


	2. Sadistic Villains are not your Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is dead. And it's Steve's fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is getting really depressing really fast... please enjoy nonetheless :D

“I’m happy to announce that the groups are complete now! You lost one of your leaders already, so don’t bother looking for him.”

Steve froze.

Tony.

No. no, no, no, no, NO!

The fiery panic that had screamed at him to follow Tony, to protect the genius that had lured the second creature away even if he was hurt – again – to protect Steve, singed his very soul. Tony would laugh at that, telling him he was being a poetic idiot.

But he couldn’t.

Tony was dead.

And it was Steve’s fault.

For a second, he thought the agonized whimper had been him, choked out of his throat despite the fire consuming him.

It had been Colonel Rhodes. Tony’s brother in everything but blood who had fallen to his knees and was clutching at the dirty ground as if Tony was buried underneath.

Steve had cost him his brother. The brother he had known for most of his life.

Steve hadn’t been able to protect him.

The next whimper, despairing and hurting, was his own.

The cheery voice was still talking but it wasn’t more than a background noise. He felt numb. Hollow. Burnt out even if the flames were still licking at him.

He didn’t fell to his knees. He couldn’t move at all.

When Tony had run, making sure the second griffin followed him, Steve had thrown himself forward, lunging for his shield and making damn sure the other creature focused on him. His arm was injured but not bad enough to really hinder him.

He had reached his shield, rolling on his back and the sharp beak, still decorated with his blood, had tried to skewer him. As soon as he had room to breathe, he had rammed it upward, making the beast stumble.

It wasn’t much but enough for Steve to press forward, to force it back with his trustworthy shield.

He didn’t dare to look over his shoulder, knowing full well Tony was long gone. He was right, of course. A bird wouldn’t be able to stand against Tony Stark.

They had both been wrong.

After a while the griffin seemed to lose interested in the fighting snack, almost making a huffing sound before flexing its incredible wings, colors flashing over the feathers, before it pushed itself into the sky, not caring enough for the human on the ground to even glance at him.

Steve cradled his already healing arm, following the creature as long as he could with his eyes. What was going on?

Turning around, he made to follow in the direction Tony had been running, sure he would find the genius. Probably beside a killed or tamed magical creature that he would be explaining to it that its very existence was against his beliefs.

Or it had vanished too, leaving him alone in the woods. God, he prayed the genius hadn’t done something brave and stupid.

Steve pushed himself through the thick bushes, just to almost ran into a metal fence, that was clearly under a lot of electricity, his hearing picking up the humming. Looking around frantically, he had tried to find a lead which way Tony had run. There was nothing.

What was going on? If Tony was right and all of this was staged…

“Steve?”

He turned on the spot, almost giving himself whiplash. Following the faint rustling of leaves, he looked up, seeing the Black Widow drop elegantly out of a tree a few paces to his right.

“Nat, what happened?”

The spy sported a rather nasty looking gush on her head, blood still dampening her red hair.

“We had a run in with a wolf.”

“That wasn’t a wolf.” Came Colonel Rhodes voice, a little strained, but strong from the same tree. He moved slower and Steve saw why. His left side had been clawed up and it seemed like he had sprained his right ankle, as he heavily favored his left when limping towards them.

“It was at least the size of a grizzly!”

“Yes.” Natasha conceded, her eyes constantly moving around the forest. “It still was a wolf.”

“We were attacked by griffins.”

“What?”

Steve shrugged his shoulders, almost apologetically. Colonel Rhodes had helped out twice before – but not with the more exotic missions.

“We?” Natasha’s green eyes pinned Steve down and it was all Steve could do to not squirm. He flashed a glance to the Colonel before he answered. “Me and Tony. I- We were attacked by a griffin. When the second approached, Tony ran to distract it.”

“Was he hurt?”

“…Yes.”

The grim expression of the Colonel was – probably – not directed at Steve. After all he knew the engineer better than anyone, aside from Jarvis, and knew that no one could stop him. It still stung.

“I’m guessing you haven’t seen him?”

“No.”

Steve sighed. It would have been too easy. “Okay. Let’s find him.”

“There are no tracks.” Nat looked at him. Her eyes calm and controlled, but the minuscular twitch of her fingers gave her away. She was nervous. That made Steve extremely nervous.

“Did you notice anything?”

Colonel Rhodes pressed his lips together, glancing at Natasha.

“Something is wrong.” Her eyes wandered around the trees, as if she was looking for birds and insects, like Tony had done earlier.

“Tony thinks it’s not natural.”

Nat inclined her head. “There are things missing.”

“And grizzly sized wolfs, and apparently griffins.” There was a strain in the Colonel’s voice. “Is this… normal?”

“No.” The spy turned towards the fence, as if she could vanish it by pure willpower. If anyone could, Steve wouldn’t be surprised if it was Natasha. Or Tony. But that could possibly be because Steve always crumbled like a wet paper towel whenever the genius looked, smiled or breathed in his direction.

“Oookay.” The Colonel turned to Steve, his face set. “What are we doing to get to Tony and the others?”

Good question.

Inhaling deeply, Steve reached for his Captain America persona… or like he often called it in his head: make the monkey dance. Sometimes it still felt like it. Since they moved into the Tower and the team became his family it most often felt more like being himself. Right now? Right now, it felt like trying to pretend to be the dancing monkey.

“What do we know?”

“We can’t trust the environment.”

“We know… we think the others are out there.”

“There seems to be no lifeforms aside from mythological creatures.”

“Okay.” Steve nodded, his hands grabbing his shield harder, thankful it wouldn’t bend under the pressure. “Aliens or magic?”

“Magical Aliens?”

Steve glanced at Colonel Rhodes, biting back a sigh. It was possible. He didn’t want it to be possible, but it was.

“Magic.” Natasha turned back, looking at Steve with a raised eyebrow. “The portal looked a lot more like what Dr. Strange does than Aliens.”

“Okay, so we are probably still on earth.” That was a relief.

Colonel Rhodes looked around, frowning. “Parallel dimension? Or maybe our consciousnesses are projected in whatever this is?”

“Good point.” If that was the case all their injuries could be imagined, which meant there was a good chance Tony was alright. Or all their injuries they got in here, if that was the case, were transferred to their bodies. As they couldn’t know where their bodies were, even if it was most likely that the villain of the day had them, they couldn’t guess the condition they would possibly be in.

“Either way we have to find the others and a way to get out of here.”

Both of them looked at him in a mixture of acceptance and as they expected answers.

Squaring his shoulders, Steve decided what they were going to do. There was no way he would split them up after just losing Tony. Sure, they would cover more ground on their own, but as he was almost certain that whoever kept them here wouldn’t allow them to meet again if they lost each other, it was too risky.

“Stick together. We’re going to look for them.”

Natasha nodded, obviously agreeing with the plan.

“Can you walk?” Steve turned to Colonel Rhodes who send him a withering glare.

“Of course.” He had the same glint in his eyes that Tony got whenever he would break the laws of physics, men and god to achieve whatever it was he wanted.

Steve would keep an eye on him.

Twenty minutes later they had still walked through the forest, the never-ending fence beside them.

Then the voice had started speaking and the world stopped.

“Steve!”

Nat was standing before him, her hands grabbing his shoulders and shaking him, her face so blank and empty it was her very own scream of terror and agony.

Steve blinked, no, he was shacking. Not because of the Black Widow but because his body was moving like a leaf in a storm.

Tony was dead.

Tony was _dead_.

 _Tony_ was dead.

Tony.

“Steve!” Nat tried again, reaching out to his face and making him look into her eyes. “We don’t know if it’s true. We can’t trust her.”

“Why would I lie to you, Miss Romanov?”

Natasha froze in her movement.

“To show you my good faith, and because I don’t want this to end too soon, I’ll send you items you need.”

“What do you want?” The spy gritted out, her hand digging into Steve’s arm. Not that he really felt it.

“Your pain, of course.” The voice cheerily declared with a happy giggle.

Steve wanted to throw up.

“You’re sick.” Colonel Rhodes voice was cold and void of all life. He looked up at a tree in which a camera was badly hidden, fury in his dark eyes.

“Probably.” The voice agreed, amiable. “But you know what?” 

The silence most likely was for suspense and even in his state of shock and desperation, it seemed to much like something a play would do.

“I really couldn’t care less.” Another cheery laugh.

Steve balled his fists. The fire in him was still roaring, still drowning out most of his senses, but he felt his fingernails split his skin. He felt the rage and fury win out for the moment.

“We’re still going to have so much fun!”

Not thinking, Steve flung his shield, destroying the camera, before flinging it a second time destroying the speaker in another tree.

Wordlessly, he stepped forward, reaching out for Colonel Rhodes, half expecting the other man to hit his hands away. He didn’t.

Natasha moved to them, pressing their heads so close together the microphones would hopefully not pick up the whispered discussion.

“Tony could be alive.”

Steve felt Colonel Rhodes stiffen beside him, felt himself hurt even worse. Did she say that to calm them? To keep them sane? Complicit? Or was she repeating herself because she wished it to be true?

“If… The impact would have been greater if she showed us proof.” She whispered and a whimper escaped Steve.

“As long as we haven’t seen proof-” Natasha pressed on, with an audible edge of desperation in her voice that actually showed more of her mindset than Steve thought she would show right now.

“Stop.” The Colonel’s voice wasn’t more than as rasp, the pain so deep and cutting, Steve wished he would have carved it in his skin. It would have been easier to stomach. Not that he deserved it.

Natasha fell silent for a moment. “I’m not sure what her plan is, but we can’t let her pick us off one by one.”

“We won’t.” Steve didn’t recognize his voice, but his lips had moved and he meant the words. No one else. They would find the others. They would find Tony. And they would get home. They wouldn’t leave him here.

And they would make _her_ pay. Most people liked to forget that Captain America had served in one of the most horrific wars earth had ever seen. Yes, he had tried to be as humane as he could be, had tried to injure instead of killing if it wasn’t necessary. But he had.

For _her_ he would make an exception. She had… He would avenge Tony. He would make her bleed. He would make her regret even _thinking_ about hurting his…

That was the worst, wasn’t it? Tony, the brilliant, generous, beautiful genius had only been his friend. Not that he wasn’t thankful he was… had been? He loved to be Tony’s friend, to see his easy smiles, see his mind working inside and outside his beautiful armor. But he had hoped… had dreamed they could be more one day. Even if Tony deserved more. He would have tried to give him the world, protect him, take care of him and… be with him.

Clenching down on the fiery flood that wanted to break free, to rage and destroy, Steve pressed his eyes close. If he lost himself to these feelings now, he wouldn’t be a help to anyone.

And _she_ wanted their pain. She wouldn’t get _anything_.

The sound of soft pinging made all of them look up at the same time. Floating downwards to them was a white basket on a white parachute.

“Why would she help us?” Rhodey whispered almost inaudible for even Steve. He had no clue.

Reaching out, Steve grabbed the basket and held it between them. It held three water bottles, bandages, a support bandage, pain medicine and some kind of ointment. Seemingly in their original packaging.

He glanced up, meeting first Nat’s eyes before looking at Colonel Rhodes.

“I believe her when she says she wants to drag this out.” Both men looked at the Black Widow. Her lips were pressed into a thin line. Annoyance and disgust easy to read in her features.

The Colonel nodded, before turning away.

“Rhodes-”

“No.” He didn’t turn back, standing stoic on his injured ankle, his fists balled so tightly, Steve feared his fingers would break.

“I don’t want a damn thing from her. I’d rather die from blood poisoning then accepting any of that.” There was a finality in his words that didn’t allow for a discussion.

Steve glanced at Nat, who was still holding the basket. The Colonel was right, of course. All of it could be poisoned. Still, it would put them at a disadvantage if they didn’t try to patch them up at least a little.

Natasha, Steve knew very well, was maybe the most pragmatic person on this planet. He had seen her once use the outside of a burger wrapper to stop a bullet wound from bleeding and knock a civilian out to stop her screaming. She would do whatever was necessary to survive.

She glanced at the contents they probably needed desperately. Glancing up at his eyes, there was a flash of anguish and unspeakable rage, before she took the basket out of his arms and hurled it at the fence.

The moment it touched the fence there was a sound like an echo of thunder and it vanished into thin air.

“I guess, that settles that.” Nat turned, meeting Colonel Rhodes eyes. “Let’s get the others back.”

As if on cue, loud roaring split the unnatural silence all around them.

“I think we were able to piss her off.” Natasha grinned her most dangerous smile, full of bloody promises.

Stepping in front of the Colonel who was in no fighting condition (and vowing to Tony that he would keep his brother save no matter what), Steve raised his shield.

Breaking through the trees was a horde of rhinos. Steve would be the first to acknowledge he didn’t know much about animals. But he knew that these elephant sized rhinos were way too big to be real. He also knew they didn’t stand a chance.

Ignoring any and all protest Colonel Rhodes might have had, he turned, flung the man over his shoulder and started running. Natasha was already ahead of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if I like the way I write Steve here, so if you have an opinion on it or tipps, it would be much appreciated...
> 
> ...as are kudos and comments, of course!


	3. Focus on the productive. No, not that.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony knows he can't trust the voice one bit. She could be lying! It doesn't change that he cracks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have fun!

Pain was nothing new for Tony. How could it be? He had lived through a lot of physical pain – open heart surgery to name just one – and emotional pain, like abuse, the loss of human Jarvis (and his parents if you wanted to get technical) and betrayal. So much betrayal.

It was nothing compared to the ice burning his lung and freezing his heart when _she_ had told them Steve was dead.

Obviously, they couldn’t trust her. It didn’t change the reactions of his body. It didn’t stop the scream in his head. It didn’t stop the all-consuming devastation.

He saw the stiffening of Clint, the rage, fury and pain in the assassin’s eyes and the way he grabbed his knife harder, ready to gut and kill.

He saw Bruce shaking, felt the other man’s body press down on him, hurting his injuries more by accident.

He didn’t hear a sound aside from the screaming in his head.

Bruce turned to him, moving away enough to sit beside him. Talking to him. Tony saw it. He didn’t hear a damn thing.

He felt his heart racing, too fast, too strong, pressing against the casing of the arc reactor. It hurt and it was hurting him.

Bruce’s strong hands grabbed his arms, steadying him. Forcing him to look up.

Clint moved and Tony focused on the archer, on his loss. His agony.

Nat and Rhodey were out there. Steve was out there. He could throw himself a pity party after he got all of them out of here.

Inhaling liquid fire – at least one of his ribs must have been broken by now– he clamped down on the agony, the hatred, the fear, his screaming, the unbearable cracks that were going to destroy him. But not now. Now he would focus. He would get them out of here. All of them.

He had learned to ignore all of himself long before the Ten Rings had gotten to him. He could switch himself out, retreat to a place not even he himself could reach sometimes. And if he wouldn’t come back, so be it.

His hearing came back bringing with it the unnatural silence and Clint’s voice.

“…say anything. She could be lying just to mess with us!” He grabbed tightly enough to his bow and an arrow his knuckles stood out even in the semidarkness.

“Or she waits until we get our hopes up to show us the body because she knows we’ll have hope until we have proof.” Tony’s voice was pleasant, even if there was an edge to it. It was a voice he hadn’t heard in a long time. The thought what he had _accomplished_ using this voice made his lips split into a grin that was pure Merchant of Death. “Hope can be more destructive than anything else. They could all be dead and she could use our _hope_ ” he spit the word out like poison “to play her game.”

Leaning back a little, he ignored the pain racing threw his body. He had barely enough oxygen to say all that. But it didn’t matter. It mattered so much less than all the thoughts raising through his fucking brilliant mind showing him all they ways _she_ could use Natasha against him, the woman he had just come to actually know and like. All the ways to make him give in.

He thought about what he would do to Steve if he was the voice and wanted to make the others break. He would toy and prod and rip until there was nothing left but empty shells. If it was him he would let them stew a little, then give proof of live in tortured screams telling them there might still be a chance to save him, _she_ had thought him dead but because of the serum Steve had survived. She would make them do a task maybe hurting each other before she would tell them where Steve was. Maybe it wouldn’t be him but someone else. Maybe it would be his corpse, still warm.

He thought about Rhodey who shouldn’t be here. Who was here because of Tony, to protect him because he was useless and weak and Rhodey had never learned that Tony was poison. If the voice wanted to punish the Avengers he was the most likely to survive or be used as a tool to torture them. It was likely Nat would get a choice: kill the outsider and save her team. She would know that she would lose Tony over it, but if it saved their lives, she would do it without hesitation. And Rhodey wouldn’t stop her either. He would gladly lay down his life and Tony hated him for it.

If this wasn’t about the Avengers but about him – and Tony had enough ego and experience to fucking know it was almost a 50/50 chance, because this tasted like something personal, like revenge – Rhodey’s chances were even worse.

If Steve was still alive – and if _she_ was even half as creative or knowledgeable as Tony, he prayed to the empty havens (or fucking Thor to get his ass down here) that if she had him that he was already dead – she would use the Captain to torture Tony. After that she would use Natasha for the same purpose. It would take time, creativity and patience to break her, but if half of the stuff Tony imagined could be going on here, _she_ would be able to do it.

If it was Tony’s show, because this was what it was: a show; he would let Tony believe Steve was dead, let it sink in and deepen the pain, spread mistrust and lay the fault at his feet, before making the work on Nat audible or even watchable for them. After she died, he would show the psychological broken Steve, show his pain before giving Tony a choice: kill one of his own to save Steve. Every kindergartner would see through that trick, but it wouldn’t make it any less painful.

By then she would have established that she was a liar and they couldn’t trust her, but Steve’s devastation would be the proof that Nat was actually dead. The Avengers needed all their members, of course, they were a family and Tony wouldn’t be able to choose. It would get worse if someone would try to offer themselves as sacrifice. _She_ wouldn’t allow Tony to kill himself, because that would be too easy.

After that she would kill Steve either quick and dirty going for the shock value or slow and painfully mocking Tony for being weak, not choosing the real hero – for which he would hate her more because Clint and Bruce were as much heroes as Steve, damnit!

Then they would use Rhodey.

Tony blinked. He could see it. All the possibilities, all the best ways to break them, to rip them apart, to strip them of everything they had, every reason to fight, to go on.

Thinking about it, the set-up could have been better. There had been irregularities. Tony knew at least 36 better ways, more devastating ways to bring them here.

It wasn’t only the forest feeling more like bad stage prop. More than the creatures that shouldn’t – but probably did exist somewhere – haunting them, but not trying to kill them. It was the way reality seemed to change around them. Clint and Bruce had been running from the same direction he had come from, just through a tunnel. He would have bet that if he had used the first entrance into the cave he would have stumbled into them.

Because whoever was here _wanted_ this situation to happen. With this exact constellation here and…

“Tony.” Bruce whispered, despair layering his voice, urgency behind it. A plea for reason. For stopping.

Before Tony could shatter that thought, and he would have, mind you, in a clear-cut brutal manner he wouldn’t normally talk to his Bruceybear, when the voice started talking again.

“To show you my good faith, and because I don’t want this to end too soon, I’ll send you items you need.”

“Why?” Clint yelled, rage barely contained.

She laughed, a beautiful sound of honest to god glee. “I just said it, didn’t I? I want to have some more fun with you!”

“You sadistic-”

“You want our pain.” Tony stated, because it was obvious, so glaringly obvious.

“Oh, I knew you would understand, Tony.” There was so much pride and admiration in her voice, Tony expected her to ask for an autograph. “He suffered greatly, you know. Screamed you name before-”

“Shut up!” Clint screamed, at the camera, while Bruce pinned Tony down harder, moving the broken rib in his side.

They thought she could provoke him. He knew why, of course. What she said was burning like poison, like acid, corroding his heart, his soul to its barest threats. It would break him, destroy him. But right now, he was his brain. He was a christal clear mind.

“Your set-up was sloppy.”

Both Bruce and Clint stopped dead. Maybe it was his words. Maybe it was the gentle voice he used. Or it was the tone of condescending disappointment.

“…what?”

“You want our pain and you want to drag this out, probably get to us, get to me in ways no one else would come up with, right? Make us squirm at your feet and break?”

“Tony.” Bruce whimpered, clutching him tighter. Tony didn’t stop. He continued in his pleasant voice.

“Your first mistake was forgetting to create a world we could believe in. It is wildly known that we haven’t had too many battles against magic, so using it to move us to an unknown location wasn’t a bad idea. But you should have created something _better_.” There was heavy judgment in that word.

“I didn’t cut my feet while running through a damn forest without shoes. How could you ever believe we would fall for any of this?”

“It… I… I care for your _pain_ , it doesn’t matter-”

“Oh, but it does.” Tony smiled. He was aware now that the griffin had left, done with his job they would probably not see him again, because who wanted a _repetition_ in their _script_.

“You’ll send us items we need? Let me guess, medications, pain killers, stuff to get me mobile again. You let your pets have a go at me because you _know_ how the others react when their token weak human gets hurt, right?” This had gotten bad enough for even the media to pick up in the last couple of weeks. The Avengers were down right useless whenever Tony got hurt, or Iron Man started bleeding even a tiny bit. Natasha, with a bullet still stuck in her, would keep watch while Tony got a band aid refusing to be treated before she was certain Tony was fine. The others were even worse. (No one was fussed over like Tony was. Of course, all took care of each other, but there was no one stupid enough to wrestle Nat to the ground to treat her and no one would lay a hand on Clint if he decided to not be treated – mostly because no one aside from Nat would be able to find him – even if both were more inclined to let themselves be treated when Tony struck a bargain with them.)

Clint and Bruce were barely even bruised, most likely because they would have to help an injured Tony in whatever _she_ had still in store for them.

“How hurt are the others? Some cuts, maybe a few bruises? Nothing to incapacitate them, right? Probably not as bad as I am. Maybe a broken arm or sprained ankle.”

There was a rustling sound over the speakers and Tony laughed.

“You still don’t know what-”

“Don’t I? In a minute, Clint will shoot the camera. You will still send us your delivery. It will land right in front of the cave entrance and there will be nothing trying to stop us to get it. Most likely there will be water, maybe even food for us. You will want to see us squabble, want to see me refuse the help, fight Bruce tooth and nail, maybe even a physical fight until they subdue me before they can treat me.” He laughed again.

“You, princess, want our pain. You just wanna have fun.” He let icy glee slip into his voice, into his smile and eyes. Bruce stiffened, Clint almost stepped back.

“You had your fun. Get ready, because it’s our turn.”

His eyes slashed over to Clint and he released one of his arrows in the same second. After that he let two other arrows fly, probably destroying more equipment Tony couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge.

“Get it.”

“Tony-”

“Now.”

Clint glanced at Bruce, who nodded, before stepping outside.

There was the sound of heavy breathing (Bruce and Clint) and his own shallow puffs. Deep inhales were not on the menu today for Tony. It didn’t matter. He got enough oxygen for his brain to keep working.

A soft pining noice chimed and a moment later Clint brought them a white basket, with a white mini-parachute being fastened to the sides to stop it from tilting too much.

“Hunger Games.”

“What?” Both men looked at him with concern obviously written all over their faces, even if it was hidden behind wariness.

“This right here? It reminds me of a movie Peter made me watch.” He had been over for a weekend when May had been out of town and after working in the ‘shop, they had watched some movies he kept referencing. Tony had disliked them, especially the way the ‘heroine’ had been portrayed as someone who didn’t make her own decisions just reacting to stuff happening to her – but he had loved the time with his kid.

There was suddenly understanding in Clint’s eyes. “I remember.” He gave the basket to Bruce and Tony glanced at the contents. He had been right. Three water bottles and enough materials to get him almost comfortable considering the situation.

“The lizard could have been from Jurassic Park, if I think about it.”

“When I was running from the griffin I felt like some helpless idiot from an eighties horror movie.”

Bruce, who was already working on Tony, looked up at that. “What is your theory?”

“Not sure yet.”

“What are possible theories, then?” Bruce asked, with a calm that could only be the result of wrestling with the Other Guy for years.

Tony looked at his science bro. He hadn’t even asked if Tony wanted him to treat him, just gotten to work. Right now, he was carefully cleaning the claw marks in his side.

“Magic.”

“But it doesn’t explain… the rest.” Bruce agreed.

“No.”

“Parallel dimension?” Clint asked, standing guard near the entrance, but keeping as much an eye on Tony as on the light spilling into their cozy cave.

“Possible, but I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“It just…” It didn’t add up. Something was missing. Something was… It wasn’t right.

“She wants to make us suffer.”

Clint raised an eyebrow. “She’s doing a good job of it. By the way, when we’re home, remind me to never piss you off.”

“That’s the point. She isn’t.”

“Could have fooled me.”

Tony hissed, when Bruce moved him, starting to check over his ribs.

“Think about it, Clint. Think about your training. If you want to hurt a close-knit group. What would you do?”

The archer opened his mouth, closing it without saying a word. A frown forming on his face.

“I would make them watch.” Bruce murmured, barely loud enough for Tony and Clint to hear.

“Exactly.” Tony agreed, ignoring how much his body hurt when Bruce moved him gently.

“She didn’t say anything about revenge.”

Tony looked back up at Clint. There was a slight possibility she would have if Tony hadn’t interrupted her, but he didn’t think so. After the way he had provoked her, she would have exploded and either acted impulsively or screamed her revenge plan at him. It wasn’t like she seemed to be exceptionally stable.

“I don’t think this is about revenge.” Tony agreed. This complicated everything.

“So, what? She just wants our pain? For what?”

“It’s possible she really is just a psychotic sadist.”

“But it’s unlikely.” Bruce started to wrap Tony’s torso in a tight bandage, supporting his damaged ribs. “That’s why you provoked her.”

Tony nodded. Even if no one said it, the possibility that the others had suffered because of that decision was a burning bright fact in Tony’s mind.

“That leaves us with…” Clint asked, looking between the two other men.

“I’m not sure, yet.”

“Aside from the _having fun because you suffer_ part-” Clint interrupted himself, a deep frown creasing his forehead.

“Spit it out, birdbrain.”

The spy shook his head. “What does it mean if she really does use elements from movies for this… world? Illusion? Whatever it is we’re stuck in. That she is unimaginative?”

“Or she appreciates these stories and… Bruce, which mythology come griffins from?”

Bruce looked up from securing the bandaged. “All cultures have them since… ancient Greek, I think.”

“Like the legendary Greek heroes?”

There was a new unease in Bruce’s gaze. “Almost all of them ended in tragedy.”

“Yeah.” Tony agreed, something settling in the back of his mind but still out of his reach.

“Okay and what does that mean for us?” Clint was as calm on the surface as all of them. He was more experienced with situations like these. He was trained.

Tony met his eyes. “We need to find the others.”

The archer, for a split second, appeared to wanted to say something. He didn’t. Good.

“Okay. How is he Bruce, can we move him?”

“If we’re careful? Yes.” He finished up the almost inconsequential bandage on Tony’s wrist.

Both of the men helped Tony up, waiting for any sign of pain which Tony was proud to say he kept under lock and key right beside his mental break down, self-hate and abandonment issues.

“Do we have a plan?”

“More like a goal.”

“Saving the others, killing the bitch and getting out of here?” Clint grinned, even if it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Exactly.”

Standing, Tony was almost able to ignore his screaming body. He wouldn’t be able to run (and he probably wouldn’t be walking all that long either) but he could stand, he could walk and he would get to the others if it was the last thing he ever did.

Clint was the first to step out of the cave and into the beautiful sunny day. Bruce, who walked closely enough that Tony could feel his body heat, was right behind Tony when he followed him.

The bushes with the multicolored thorns were gone. There was a shift in the air and when Tony turned again, the mountain was gone as well. They stood on an open field. At the end of it was a fence that was straight out of-

“Jurassic Park? Again? That’s lame!” Clint huffed. Tony had to agree.

“What are the chances a T-Rex is going to hunt us?” Clint asked, his eyes never stopping as they made their way slowly to the fence.

“Not that high.” Tony breathed, keeping himself as stiff as he could. Even with his detachment every step hurt. Just like the throbbing in the back of his mind that played all the horrors he could imagine in a loop. HD and in color. Steve’s eyes cold and without life. His body ripped to shreds. Half eaten and-

“Tony?” Bruce pressed his shoulder, meeting his gaze, calm and understanding.

Right. Focusing on what would be at least not a total waste of his time, Tony glared back at the fence.

“Just so we’re clear, I’m not going to climb-” He stopped abruptly, groaning. “Okay, she made us a passage. Fucking considered.”

He was right, some of the fence was bent upwards just enough for a slim adult to press through. As they all weren’t as built as… Thor, they should make it. Obviously, Tony would have a grand time, but that must be part of the fun for their stalker.

Tony was right. He had a fucking amazing time being pushed and pulled to fit through the whole. Even a half hour later he still hurt because of it. That he still kept walking, ignoring any and all glances and comments, wasn’t helping any.

He wouldn’t show weakness. Not if he could help it. Something had changed. He was sure. Something… something he had said or they had talked about had changed the situation.

There was a slight rustling sound beside them coming from the bushes and Tony yelped when Bruce pushed him back, positioning himself between Tony and whatever was about to come out to potentially maim, kill or guide them in a swirl of crazy to their next location. It would have been so much easier if _she_ would just hand them the fucking script.

Clint, already armed, stood a little aside, waiting for a clear shot.

A head, very much like a skeleton horse, pushed through to sniff at the grass, before coming closer. As soon as Tony saw the bat like wings he groaned.

“Don’t shoot it, it’s a thestral.”

“A what?”

“It’s from Harry Potter.”

“It’s from-”

“Friend or foe?” Clint asked over Bruce, his arrow still pointed at the creature.

“Friend, probably.”

“Weren’t their death omens?”

“Nope, you can only see them if you were close to death or saw it or something.”

“Peter?”

Tony glanced at Bruce and nodded. It was a lie. Sure, he had seen the movies with the kid, but he had read the books before he even knew the Spiderling.

“Okay. And what does it mean?”

There were different possibilities. It could be a reminder that all of them had seen death already. It could be a warning that they would see death again soon. It could be an oh so necessary memory aid that she had… told them she had killed Steve. Or they should use them like Harry had.

“Are there three?”

Clint glanced in Tony’s direction before gluing his eyes back on the thestral. “No, just the one.”

Not the last one then. New plan.

“Hey, girl!”

“Tony!”

“Hey, I know you’re listening!”

“What are you doing?” Bruce hissed in his ear.

“Tell me something, I’m curious.”

“Tony, please!”

“Why do you think I would tell you anything?”

Tony grinned, keeping it friendly. He also didn’t say the obvious. She was talking to him, wasn’t she?

“Why emotional pain?”

“What?” Her voice was almost suspicious.

“Why not torture us physically? Hell, two of us are fine. I’m just a little banged up, nothing a little rest won’t fix.”

“Tony!” Bruce growled, almost as threateningly as the Other Guy.

“You proved you have power over this place. You’re basically god here-”

“Tony, what-” Clint hissed, although not with the venom he could have used. He was catching on.

“The only thing we have to suspect right now is that even when we win, we will have lost… our Captain.” There was a waver in his voice he hadn’t been able to stop. Not even while being as closed off to his feelings as he was right now.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed.

“You haven’t given us food. I don’t think you intend us to stay in here much longer. It’s not your style to starve us, is it?”

“Too boring.” The voice agreed amiably.

“Why then? Why the emotional pain? What does it give you?”

The silence stretched for so long, Tony feared she wouldn’t answer at all.

“What is fluff without some angst?” There was a chuckle in her voice.

Then everything around them went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing this :D
> 
> Next chapter will be the conclusion and I can't WAIT to see what you'll think of it!
> 
> Tell me all of your theories I'm curious :D


	4. Too much love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Rhodey and Nat find Clint and Bruce unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, this took me way longer when I planned. But on the bright side: It's over 7000 words long so I hope you'll forgive me ;)

“So… that was fun.” Colonel Rhodes glared at Steve, who tried to feel anything aside from the fiery dread racing through his veins. He didn’t.

Running away from the elephant sized rhinos hadn’t worked, of course. It had taken Natasha and him a proximally thirty seconds to be sure of that. To escape they had climbed a tree. Which had been a challenge as Steve had been carrying Colonel Rhodes at the time. It was the reason he glared at Steve right now. Or it was the underhung reason.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to cling to Nat’s whispered hope that it could be a lie. Tony might be alive. The woman might have lied. _Tony might be alive_. But if he believed it. If he _hoped_ … it would hurt so much more if he was dead. It would kill him even more, would destroy him, rip him into shreds so small no one would be able to piece him back together.

He could not _not_ hope. It would kill him. It did. Every breath seemed to be worse than the last. Still, he had no other choice but to hope, to _pray_ , that Tony was alive. That he was as safe as he could be. That he…

He turned on the branch he was still sitting on, watching Natasha come back, balancing elegantly on her heels. He glanced over both of them, assessing their mental state. Her expression didn’t betray anything but Steve knew all three of them were in a bad place. Sure, Nat hid it better but she was affected as well. Steve could read it in her eyes, darker than normal, a tightness in her frame she usually hid – or didn’t have.

Since the team moved into the Tower all of them had calmed down and relaxed – even Clint and Natasha. And all of it was because of Tony. Steve knew the genius didn’t see it that way. But it was the truth. He had always been there for all of them. They had talked about it. How Tony would be there whenever one of them woke up in the night. He talked with Steve, opened his workshop to him and most often let Steve take care of him because he _knew_ sometimes Steve needed to- to feel useful. To know he could take care of his family. To keep him safe. And Tony accepted it. He indulged him even if Steve annoyed him.

How would they survive as a team without their heart?

“Did you find anything?” Steve looked at her, hoping for good news. For anything.

“No.” She sat down cross-legged, beside him, her eyes moving towards the Colonel before looking back at Steve. “There aren’t even tracks of the rhinos.”

“So, there is no way for us to leave breadcrumbs for the others.”

“If _she_ doesn’t want us to, no.” Steve hissed, agreeing with the Colonel. As long as they didn’t know what the rules were, what was happening and who was doing it, they could try. And probably amuse _her_. And that was not an option.

Nat raised a questioning eyebrow.

They would look for the others. They would find them. And they would get home. All of them. He told the others as much.

“That’s not a plan. It’s a wish list.” But there was a smile on her lips.

“Let’s go.” The Colonel, not waiting for help, pushed himself off of the branch, rolling himself up on the ground. He grunted softly, but Steve knew it must have hurt terribly. The Colonel didn’t seem to care.

They didn’t have a strategy or any clues. Which way would they go? Exhaling, Steve pushed himself off of the branch landing beside the other man. It didn’t matter. They had to do something. They had to try to find the others. Yes, it was most likely that they wouldn’t be able to do it if _she_ didn’t want them to succeed, but she might allow it. Or, even better, she wasn’t as all powerful as she appeared. They had fought situations that… They had won a lot of battles already. They wouldn’t lose here. They couldn’t.

Both Natasha and Steve had an eye on the Colonel, noting how his limb got more pronounced the longer they walked alongside of the fence. Steve wanted to help, but he understood the need to do it on his own. He let him, knowing full well it wouldn’t end well otherwise.

They couldn’t have walked longer than thirty minutes when Natasha, who had been scouting ahead, stiffened in an obvious reaction she most often didn’t show, before starting to run.

Steve glanced to the Colonel, who glared at him, making a harsh hand motion.

“Go!”

Steve went. He started running and moments later saw why Nat had started running. In the grass lay Bruce and Clint, sprawled as if they had been thrown there in a careless motion.

Tony wasn’t with them.

“Clint!” Nat let herself fall beside the archer, her hands carefully moving over his body.

Steve had been right beside her, kneeling beside Bruce and mimicking her movements.

Tony wasn’t here.

“Steady pulse.” Natasha murmured.

Steve checked Bruce’s pulse. It was steady as well.

Tony wasn’t-

“Are they okay?”

Steve looked up at the Colonel. His expression was set and empty. He was a soldier, a good one as far as Steve was concerned and of course he would ask for the other people on the mission. Still, there was the slightest tremor in his hands. The deadness in his voice and the icy cold in his eyes.

Tony was…

“They are fine.” Natasha looked up at him, her expression as emotionless as could be. She didn’t say what all of them were thinking.

“We… We should get them to safety.” None of them told Steve they didn’t know where that was. They didn’t tell him it didn’t matter. Tony was… wasn’t with them and that-

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Colonel Rhodes hadn’t moved. “She wanted us to find them. She wants us to… talk.”

It could be the truth. It also could be a tactic to make them feel safe. On one of their first missions, Tony had opened his mask, looking exasperated at Steve and told him _Stop thinking any of this is logical, Cap. Crazy people do crazy stuff. If you try to find a reason for it you’ll go fucking crazy, too._ Of course, after the mission Tony could explain in detail why anything had happened. All of them had seen some deranged logic in it, at least from the villain’s perspective. This was a situation just like it. After they might find explanations. Right now, they just had to keep going, to keep calm.

As if that was even possible.

Scrambling for anything to stop his thoughts spiraling out of control, Steve looked down on Bruce. The man didn’t even have a scratch on him. He glanced over to Clint, not a scratch either.

“Why are they fine?”

The other two didn’t answer him. If any of them didn’t need physical injury to feel pain in this situation, as far as outsiders would know, it was Colonel Rhodes. His friendship with Tony was well documented in the media for decades. Everyone knew it.

Most media commented on Tony not being a “real Avenger” or being disliked by them. Which was bullshit and Steve told every reporter that whenever he saw them. Often, with a temper that was barely held in check. The last rumors were that Tony and the spies had a fight and weren’t on speaking terms because Clint had yelled at Tony when the billionaire had left the Tower. What the media conveniently hadn’t seen or heard was that Clint had followed him to keep him safe, berating the genius for trying to slip past him.

Did _she_ know more? Did she know how high valued Tony was? Or did she think the others were just that _good_ that they would suffer for any missing team member? It still left Steve with the question _why_ Clint and Bruce were fine. He was glad of course, but why injure only half of them? Why injure Tony the worst just to-

“One way to find out.” Nat said, raising her hand and slapped Clint’s cheek hard. The archer lurched forward into a sitting position. The only reason he didn’t hit Natasha were her fast reflexes. And that he recognized his teammate after a heartbeat.

He turned, his eyes going wide when they landed on Steve.

“You’re alive?!?”

Steve frowned. Mostly because of the accusatory tone. But also, of course he was alive, why-

“Where is Tony?” Clint asked frantic and it clicked for Steve.

Of course, they heard the message and believed Steve had died. Officially he was the leader. The government liked to paint it like that, even if the team knew both Tony and Steve parented them. Their words. Steve preferred co-leaders. No one cared.

“Clint-” Steve started, but was interrupted when Bruce stirred. He blinked his brown eyes open and gaped when he saw Steve kneeling beside him.

“Steve!” The scientist exclaimed relieved.

“Tony is gone.”

Steve flinched as if Clint had struck him. No. He couldn’t. He couldn’t be-

“What?” Bruce pushed himself up, looking around, his formerly relaxed posture tensing. “Where-”

“The bitch knocked us out and-”

“Stop.” Colonel Rhodes took a step forward, his injured leg obviously barely able to keep him upright. But Steve knew that expression he was sporting. He wouldn’t accept help.

Bruce, finally noticing the other man’s pain, frowned. “Didn’t you get a care package?”

“We did. Fried it.” Nat answered, her hands clutching at Clint’s wrist. The archer, leaning into her side, let his eyes wander around them as if he would be able to spot Tony. Maybe he had hoped the voice meant Steve. He couldn’t fault Clint for that. He wished it, too.

“Why?” Bruce asked, ripping a strip off of his shirt to bandage Rhodes’ leg as best as he could. The Colonel didn’t sit down for it. But he didn’t push the other man from him.

“You need to ask?” He asked, glaring down at the scientist that tried to stop his bleeding.

“James, you can’t keep walking like-”

“I don’t give a fuck.”

“Did you use it?” Natasha asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Tony insisted.”

It was a simple sentence. Barely a sentence really. Two words.

“What?” Steve almost grabbed Bruce to shake him and only barely refrained from doing just that. The Colonel didn’t hesitate. He grabbed onto Bruce shoulders, partly because he must feel the exhaustion and partly because that meant they had seen Tony. And he had been alive.

“When?”

“After the message.” Clint answered, his face set in stone.

“She told us we lost one of our leaders-”

They had thought it must be Steve, because they had Tony with them and Nat, Rhodes and Steve had thought it must be Tony, because they had Steve.

“Where is he?” The desperation in Steve’s voice was even louder when the harsh question of Colonel Rhodes, how injured Tony had been.

“Tony had at least one broken and two cracked rips, his wrist was broken, a severe concussion and claw marks all over his left side.” Bruce almost whispered. He looked up at the Colonel, agony in his eyes. “He decided to let us bandage him because he deduced _she_ would want us to fight him on it. He didn’t. But…”

When he didn’t keep talking, Clint sighed. “He antagonized her, telling her what he knew and judging by her reaction, he was right.”

“What did he know?” Natasha asked because they needed to know. Because she knew Steve wouldn’t have asked the question. He didn’t care. Tony had been alive. He had been with Clint and Bruce and then he had opened his mouth, telling the voice what his brilliant mind had come up with and-

“For one he knew you wouldn’t be as badly hurt as him.”

Steve raised an eyebrow.

“For another he said everything what happened were movies. The basked was Hunger Games, the fence and our lizard was Jurassic Park and then we met a Thestral from Harry Potter.”

Steve didn’t know what Hunger Games was and couldn’t remember what a Thestral was even if he had read Harry Potter but Tony had shown him Jurassic Park. He glanced at the fence before looking back at Clint. How had he made that leap in logic?

“The rhinos could have been Jumanji.” Colonel Rhodes muttered, one hand pressed over his eyes.

“He asked her why she didn’t torture us physically-”

Steve groaned while the Colonel growled and Nat hissed.

“Yeah, we weren’t happy either. He asked why emotional pain and she answered-”

“ _What is fluff without some angst_.” Bruce quoted with a dark voice.

“What does that even mean?” The Colonel growled, letting his arm fall to his side. Bruce had finished his makeshift bandages, sitting back.

“No idea. She must have knocked us out. I don’t remember anything.”

Steve met the archer’s eyes. His expression was carefully calm but he couldn’t hide the almost unnoticeable twitching of his hands and fingers. All of them were on edge. It wouldn’t take much to break any and all of them. He knew it was his job as their team leader to keep calm. Be strong. Make a plan and follow it through.

Steve wanted to scream. To destroy. To lay down here and cry. He wanted Tony.

“He said we wouldn’t be here long and she basically agreed.” Bruce muttered. He didn’t look up from his hands that were struggling to keep still.

Steve didn’t ask if he could change into the Hulk. One look at the other man assured him he couldn’t.

“What’s the plan?” Clint’s eyes wandered to Steve first, then he let it wander over all of them.

“Hey, girl!”

Steve twitched in surprise when one of the most level headed and calm people he knew screamed at the sky.

“Oh no, he must have learned it from Tony.” Clint sighed, defeatedly, while looking at the Colonel who glared up at a nearby camera. His dark eyes were ablaze with fury.

“You want your showdown? Get us to Tony and you’ll get it.” Every word was gritted out. Every word was sharp and precise.

“I’ll get that anyway.” The voice answered, cheerfully. “But since you asked nicely-”

Everything around them went black for a heartbeat and Steve feared she would knock them unconscious, maybe kill them or scatter them in this unreal place to play a new game.

Instead they slumped down on a rough stone floor. It looked like a cave and the hiss from Rhodes was more hatred than pain even if his expression couldn’t hide it behind the gritted teeth.

The scream, muffled by a gag, let him jerk upwards, meeting Tony’s eyes. On the other side of the cave was Tony. His Tony. The infuriating genius he _loved_. He hadn’t put it into this word. Not consciously. But seeing him now, Steve knew. He loved Tony. For a moment all he saw were the whisky colored eyes. All he felt was the relief that Tony was alive. Tony was alive!

Then he saw the blood, dripping from his temple and down his left side. He saw the contortion of pain in his body language. He saw the desperation and devastation in his expression half covered by the gag.

He was strung up by his wrists, his toes barely scraping the stone floor. Ignoring his rips, broken wrist and concussion, he struggled in his bonds, trying to move away, to tell them something because he kept screaming, the despair obvious without any of the words.

Steve made a step forward without thinking. All he could see was Tony. In pain. Afraid.

“Stop.” Four hands were on him, trying to hold him back. He glanced to the sides, seeing that Bruce was clutching at the Colonel, holding him up and back.

The stretch of cave between them looked innocent enough. It was a trap. Steve knew it was a trap. He didn’t care. If the woman wanted their emotional pain she wouldn’t kill him. He was about to ignore the spies trying to calm him when he looked back in the desperate eyes of Tony. What if this was not about Steve? What if this was about Tony? What if the voice had told him the others would die to save him and it would be his fault.

It wouldn’t be. It never would be. But Steve knew survivors’ guilt and he knew Tony. They were Tony’s family. He wouldn’t want them to get hurt to save him. He was just good like that.

“Tones!” The Colonel called, his voice forced so calm it almost hurt Steve’s throat. “Stop struggling or we will run over to you. Get it? Stay calm. Don’t hurt yourself!”

The next sound was something of a protest but Tony calmed down some.

“Stop it!” The Colonel ordered. “Right now, or I’ll start running.”

Tony huffed and Steve would have bet he had said something about Colonel Rhodes wound if the gag wouldn’t prevent it. Still, he stopped struggling, his body calming. It made the signs of agony and exhaustion even more visible.

“She got rid of the bandages.” Clint murmured and Steve stiffened.

“What movie is this?” Bruce asked, his eyes on Tony, his hands balled into fists without the slightest hint of green. “Indiana Jones or-”

Tony made an agreeing sound. He probably tried to keep the pain out of his voice. He didn’t manage. Not even with the gag.

Steve was cracking on the inside. Tony was right there. He was right there and he was in pain and Steve didn’t do anything. He just stood there not helping, not thinking, not-

“Steve.”

He forced himself to look at Rhodes. He didn’t want to look away from Tony. Not even for a second. He couldn’t know what would happen in that second. He couldn’t know that Tony wouldn’t vanish again.

“Throw your shield. It should activate some of the traps.”

Without a thought Steve grabbed the Shield and threw it, letting it bounce from the walls and catching it a few moments later. Nothing happened.

There was a moment of silence when all of them waited for something. Some clue, some reaction. Every second they stood there Tony hurt and they couldn’t know if they had a time frame. They couldn’t know how long Tony would be able to keep himself stable in this position.

The sound of pained annoyance from Tony was almost enough for Steve to ignore all common sense and charge forward.

“Fuck it.” Natasha pushed Steve back, before throwing herself forward, rolling herself up on the floor, before running at full speed, avoiding some parts of the ground as if she knew what was safe. She didn’t. On her fifth step there was a creak and she let herself fall flat on her stomach. A spear grazed her shoulder, ripping her suit.

Tony screamed, starting to move again.

“I’m fine.” Nat hissed, staring up at the genius and Steve was certain, she was glaring at the other man.

“Nat-” Clint started, but stopped himself when the assassin looked back a dangerous smile on her lips.

Slowly she pushed herself forward, avoiding certain stones. Steve could have seen the difference if he had been able to look away from the chained genius for more than a couple heartbeats at a time. He couldn’t.

Logically, he knew he should tell Nat to stop. To think. But he wasn’t logical right now. He wanted to follow, he wanted to-

Nat moved forward, stopped dead and kept her position.

“Nat-” Clint started, but before anyone could say anything, she carefully rolled on her back, moving her left arm at the last possible moment. She pressed herself as flat to the ground as she could. One of the arrows shooting from the right wall just barely missed her.

Tony was struggling again in his bonds. His eyes were fixed on the red head who couldn’t be bothered to look at him. The muffled screams were gut wrenching to listen to.

Steve knew that if he was in Tony’s position he would do the same thing. Trying to keep his team safe. But unlike Tony, he would have _Tony_ trying to find a solution. And he would find a solution because Tony always did. He would change the laws of the universe to do it and he would do it with a smile on his lips. Steve couldn’t even concentrate enough to help Natasha avoid the traps.

This had to stop. This was just another mission.

Tony.

One of his teammates was in a dangerous situation, a possibly deadly situation to rescue another teammate. His team. His responsibility.

Tony…

If he just focused, just for a moment, he would see the mechanisms in the minimal differences in the ground. He would see the places in the walls where the weapons were hidden.

Tony was struggling again, blood running down his arms where he had cut his wrists on the metal handcuffs.

“Tones!” Colonel Rhodes growled, but Tony ignored him, he glared at the spy, willing her to go back, Steve was sure.

Natasha would never. It had taken Tony and her longer than anyone else to get along. Both hadn’t exactly told Steve what had happened, but the bits and pieces he knew were enough to paint a picture. But they had settled their differences. He knew they took care of each other. He had seen the soft looks both had thrown the other if they thought no one saw it. Steve had seen it. He knew that the other Avengers knew as well as him that they were a family. And except Tony, all of them knew that he was their heart. He was the Mom of the Avengers. He was their glue. He was their damn family.

Natasha wouldn’t retreat, even if it killed her. None of them would.

Rolling back on her stomach, Natasha pushed herself forward again, her posture indicating she was trying harder to see the traps, to find a safe path.

Steve’s eyes jumped up as soon as Tony fell silent. The genius was still conscious, his eyes glued to the path Natasha was taking. He struggled, trying to move forward and losing his footing. Agony flashed over his face, screaming in the way he held himself, but still he was focused on the ground.

When Natasha moved he made an alarmed noise and it clicked.

“Stop!” Steve barked, making Natasha freeze in her movement.

Steve looked into Tony’s eyes. They were as beautiful as always, with just a faint cloud of pain and exhaustion. They were sharp and focused. He made a sharp movement to his right, keeping the eye contact with Steve.

“Nat, move left.”

Tony nodded, relief obvious in his expression. He looked back down on the ground, keeping track of Natasha’s movements.

And what did Steve? He was still losing it. Tony was hanging by a broken wrist and was still more useful than the glorified Captain America.

The next time Tony made a sound Natasha froze. He nodded to his left and Natasha moved right, before looking over her shoulder. “Do you remember my path?” She asked Steve and he froze. He didn’t know. He wasn’t concentrating and he didn’t-

“Of course, we do.” Clint said, his hand reassuringly on Steve’s arm. “We follow you. Tony, keep an eye on us.”

Steve wanted to protest, to tell Clint he couldn’t put pressure on _Tony_ when he was- but he didn’t. Because he knew better. Tony had to do something. He was better off doing anything to help them. Steve would be too.

Clint and Nat moved alternately, giving Tony enough time to clear both their paths.

Steve didn’t react when he heard the discussion of Bruce and Rhodes. He didn’t dare look back. Bruce won, making sure both of them would stay back, even if the Colonel was everything but happy.

“Can I stand up?” Nat asked, looking up at Tony and he nodded.

In an instant the spy was at his side, she grabbed around his waist, trying to take some of the weight off of his wrists.

Tony screamed, a sound that send chills down Steve’s back and made all of them stop in shock.

“Rips!” Bruce yelled and Nat, who had stepped back already, cursed in Russian.

Steve would have leapt forward if Clint hadn’t jabbed a painful elbow in his side. It only barely stopped Steve.

Natasha, in her pragmatism and desperation, went down on her hands and knees, offering Tony her back to stand on. Tony refused loudly behind the gag he obviously wanted to be gone. Why didn’t Natasha-

They had reached the last bit and Steve jumped the last two steps, ignoring the squawking Hawkeye, his eyes fixed on Tony. In the next heartbeat he was at his side and ripped the gag out of the genius mouth.

There were tears in his eyes. Probably of pain and annoyance. There was nothing more he wanted than hugging Tony tight, keeping him safe in his arms.

But he couldn’t. He hadn’t the right. And he didn’t know where to touch the injured man.

“She’s a fan!” Tony gasped, his voice strangled and rough. “She is making us live a fucking fanfiction!” The emotion behind that sentence wasn’t pain. It was furious rage.

Steve wasn’t sure what that meant, instead concentrating to get him out of the handcuffs. “Steady him.” He told Natasha and Clint, who had joined them.

“Where-” Clint started, but Tony interrupted him harshly.

“Just get me down here! I’m going to hunt you down!” He screamed his eyes glaring at a spot over Steve’s shoulder.

“His legs were uninjured.” Bruce called from the back and both Natasha and Clint grabbed one of Tony’s leg, holding him up, while Steve grabbed the chain holding up the handcuffs and pulled.

Nothing happened.

“Steve?”

“I’m trying.” He hissed, not looking at Tony. The chain wouldn’t budge. Shit.

“Tony, hold still.” He met the genius’ eyes. “I’m going to break the chain between the handcuffs.”

“Sure.” There was no hesitation in Tony’s words. Even if it was so much more dangerous for him. Especially if it was reinforced, too. If Steve used even a little too much strength, he could break his hands, worsen the injury of his wrist or-

Inhaling, he carefully tugged at the chain between the handcuffs, trying to be as gentle as he could.

It didn’t budge either.

“Fuck.” Steve cursed. He tried to not do it. Often. At least not in public, even if he did curse when the situation demanded it. Still, it got a smile from Tony.

“Push me up and let me take a look.” His breathing was shallow and Steve could hear the strain in his voice even behind the roughness.

Natasha and Clint both pushed while Steve tried to stabilize Tony with hands on his shoulders. The genius pressed his lips together, closing his eyes for a heartbeat, before taking a look.

“Break the cuffs. They should be easy.”

That was even worse. So many things could go wrong and if _she_ wanted them to suffer-

“Just do it, Cap. I’ll be fine.”

Steve looked in Tony’s eyes and found nothing but trust there. It almost gutted him. Tony was hurt, he couldn’t keep hanging here.

Gritting his teeth, Steve grabbed the left handcuff, inhaling and ripped it apart. Tony’s hand fell down and he groaned. Carefully, Steve broke the right one too. Tony fell forward against Steve’s chest. In a movement fueled by reflex and need, Steve curled his arm around Tony, holding him up. He tried to be careful, to be mindful of the other man’s injuries. He couldn’t stop himself from pressing his cheek to the top of his head, exhaling shakily.

“You have him?” Clint asked and Steve remembered where he was.

“Carry him, we’ll make sure we’ll get back safe.” Natasha smiled at Steve, a knowing glint in her eyes.

“I don’t need to be carried and don’t think I forgot how fucking stupid you were, Red.” Tony hissed at one of the deadliest people in the world.

The Black Widow just stepped forward, pressing a butterfly kiss to his cheek and smiled. “Shut up, Tony.”

“The disrespect!” Tony exclaimed, letting Steve nestle him in the bridal hold to his chest. He was shivering.

“Everyone else fine?” He mumbled, barely loud enough for Steve’s enhanced hearing to pick up the words.

“Yes. Rhodes is a little banged up, but nothing serious.”

Tony moved in his arms, hissing, before settling again.

“Honey bear I hear you got stupid and hurt yourself?”

“I’ll kill you Tones. This time I’m going to do it.”

“You love me too much.” Tony laughed in Steve’s arms and Steve hated himself a little for the way his heart fluttered at that. Shock was the reason Tony snuggled closer to him. Pain and exhaustion the reason why he laid his cheek on Steve’s shoulder and closed his eyes for a moment. He had been kidnapped and hurt, strung up like a puppet and Steve enjoyed having the other man in his arms. He wasn’t better than the villain doing this to the genius.

“No pity party.”

Steve looked down at Tony, surprised to see a hard line in his expression.

“Firstly, because you did nothing wrong. I ran. She lied to us. We’re fine.”

Steve couldn’t help himself, he snorted.

“Secondly, because we will not give _her_ the satisfaction!” That he had growled, furious anger flashing in his beautiful eyes.

Just for a second Steve thought about kissing him.

As soon as they were safe on the other side, Bruce and Colonel Rhodes all but ripped Tony from his arms, laying the genius on the hard ground.

“I’m fine, stop bothering me.” Tony tried to swat away the hands unsuccessfully. As he was barely able to move at all, he wasn’t very convincing.

“I’m going to make Jarvis imprison you in your workshop.” The Colonel growled, one hand digging into Tony’s shoulder. It must hurt and Steve wanted to tell the other man to stop it, but he understood the need to _feel_ Tony. And Tony smiled at his best friend, an expression full of love and exasperation.

“I’m fine. It just looks bad.”

“Liar.”

“Seriously this is-”

“If you say ‘nothing’ that means you get hurt more often and worse than you’re telling me and then I will make Pepper ground you!”

“-the worst I ever had. The worst, absolutely. And even though it is the worst, I’m fine.”

“Aha.” The Colonel glared at Tony, who still smiled. The most beautiful expression on his face. He wanted to glance around, see how the others reacted to Tony being so _Tony_ after all this, but couldn’t make himself look away from him.

“Back to the important things.” Tony looked back at Steve and he only barely held back a flinch when his expression got hard.

“The… girl? She is a fan. A fanfiction writer, I bet.”

“Fanfiction?” He asked, because even if he could guess what it meant, he wasn’t even remotely sure.

“Peter showed me. Fans writing works about their favorite stories and characters and, as disturbing as it is, about us.”

“Why about us?”

“Beats me, but that’s what you’re doing, right? Letting us play one of your fucking stories?” Tony now looked at another camera Steve couldn’t be bothered to worry about.

“You created a story, build a set and made us play our part.”

“Yes.” There was an almost laugh in the melodic voice and Steve wanted to strangle her. It was bad enough she had made all of them believe one of them was dead. Worse enough this would visit all of them in their nightmares, but she had hurt Tony worse than all of them. He had just recovered from the last time and she-

“Even if you were a little difficult, Tony.”

Steve took a step closer to Tony, almost bending other the injured man, growling lowly.

The squeal of pleasure was one of the worst things Steve had ever heard and he _knew_ it would hound him.

“This! This is why I did this!”

“What is?” Clint spat. He was pressing one shoulder against Steve’s. All of the others were building a protective circle around Tony.

“The fluff.” Tony answered, his voice cold.

“What?”

“It’s what they call it.” He didn’t elaborate but he didn’t need to.

“You did all this just for…” Steve couldn’t believe it. This had to be a horrible joke.

“This is everything!” The girl answered, happiness plain in her voice. “You’re my favorite Avenger, Cap, and I know how much you value Iron Man. I just had to see it!”

A cold shower run down Steve’s spine. No. No, this couldn’t be. This couldn’t happen. She couldn’t-

“I know he is your best friend. The media is wrong! You all go crazy whenever Tony is hurt. I noticed. So of course, he had to suffer.”

Steve didn’t move. He couldn’t. This was all his fault. All his fault. She had done all of this just because of Steve. She wanted to see him hurt and she knew how to hurt him. He had made Tony a target. And she didn’t even seem to _know_. She said best friend. She didn’t even _know_ and still she had almost killed Tony. She had fucking tortured him and…

What would happen if she _knew_. If other villains knew? What would they do to Tony to stop the Avengers? To stop Steve?

Suddenly, Tony’s face was right in front of his. Concern and rightful rage were battling in his eyes and Steve understood. Of course, Tony hated him. All of this, his pain, the injuries of the others, it was all Steve’s fault and-

“Steve, breathe.”

Hands grabbed him hard and Tony, wincing because of the movements, leaned even closer. “This is not your fault. It’s not your fault.” He looked away and Steve whimpered.

Instead of moving away, Tony came closer, pressing against his side.

“Congratulations, you got us. I’ll give you a tip. Kill us now, because we will come after you.”

“Tony!”

“We will find you and we will make you pay.”

“Tony, stop!”

“Fair warning, as you are a fan of us and all.”

Steve shivered. That wasn’t his Tony’s voice. It wasn’t even the billionaire mask. This was someone else and Steve knew, Tony would deliver what he promised. He always did. But right now, there was something more in his voice. This was a man who could and would do anything he promised with a smile on his lips. Steve shivered again.

“I’m sure you’ll try.”

“That we will.” Tony agreed, his hands digging deeper into Steve’s arms. Steve didn’t care. Tony was still touching him. Even if he did this as a front for the villain, he would take it. He shouldn’t. He-

“I’ll be watching.” The voice promised and before any of them could even blink, darkness engulfed them again.

When Steven blinked open his eyes, he was laying on his side in an alley. Iron Man was in front of him, faceplate down.

“Tony!” He surged forward, grabbing frantically at the armor, ignoring the burst of a magical bubble around them. The eerie silence was filled with the noises of New York. Voices, traffic, honking and Steve couldn’t care less.

The armor moved. The face plate went up and beneath it was Tony’s face. Stress, pain, worry and the furious anger were flashing through his eyes and over his expression, but there was no blood.

“Are you okay?” Steve whispered, too afraid and emotionally exhausted to talk louder.

“I’m fine.” He looked over Steve’s shoulder, avoiding his eyes and it stung.

“You okay?” Tony called out and Steve could have kicked himself. He turned around. War Machine was sitting up, his face plant up, worry marking his face. Bruce was beside him, back in his body, wearing the stretchy trousers Tony had made him. Clint and Natasha were coming closer, both looking around, as if they waited for another attack. Nat’s head wound had vanished.

“Don’t seem to be hurt, but we’ll be sure once we’re out of the armor.” The Colonel answered, standing up.

“Good.” Tony stood up himself, not pushing Steve away who was still clutching the other man. He shouldn’t. He should let go. He shouldn’t take these liberties. He shouldn’t announce to the world-

“You” Tony made an impatient hand movement towards the group of heroes, “go back to the Tower. Cap and I are going to visit Dumbledore. This is his domain.”

“Tony.”

“We’ll be on our way back before you know it, Brucey, don’t worry. Rhodey, I make you responsible for getting them home.”

“Tony, I-”

“Thanks, you’re the best.” Tony didn’t wait any longer. He grabbed Steve around his waist and charged his repulsors. Steve had no other choice but to cling more tightly to him.

It was a familiar thing, clinging to Tony in his armor and being carried to wherever they needed to be. It felt safe. Good.

He shuddered again.

“Just a moment, Cap.” The electronical voice of Iron Man assured him, flying a few more minutes. Landing on a building a few blocks from the Sanctum, Tony put his face plate up, his brown eyes searching Steve’s.

Tony’s expression was troubled, a frown clouding his face.

“I… I am sorry.” It was all Steve could say. He wanted to say so much more.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Iron Man’s hands grabbed his shoulders, holding him steady. “It was not your fault. You have a crazy fan. That’s nothing. I have hundreds.”

Steve pressed his lips together. He wouldn’t cry. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t put that on Tony too.

“Last time, some guy grabbed me, put me in his cellar and confessed his undying love to me.”

Steve flinched, looking up in those eyes he would draw from memory but could never get right because he didn’t have the exact shades of brown however long he searched for them.

“What happened?” He asked instead of the growl of, _where was I_?

“Got out.” Tony shrugged unconcerned. “But he threatened to kill Pepper and Rhodey because they ‘were in the way’.” He quoted with distaste. “Was that my fault?”

“No.”

“Would it have been my fault if he had hurt them?”

“No, of course not.”

“See?”

“You still would have felt like it.” Steve mumbled, looking back in Tony’s eyes. He didn’t need to see the flinch, the guilt settling in his gaze to know it was true. He knew Tony.

“And it was stupid.”

“Seems like I’m stupid too then.”

Tony smiled. It was a little crooked and accompanied with a heavy sadness, but it was a smile full of emotion and it was just for Steve.

“Aren’t we all?”

Minutes later, Tony annoyed Stephen Strange into helping them. At least that was what he told the other Avengers an hour later. Dr. Strange had taken one look at them and ushered them in, listened to their story and promised to take care of it.

He did.

The girl he found at the end of the magical trail was a twenty-six-year-old social worker, nickname Bea, who had learned some magic. Dr. Strange informed them of that the next day, without telling them where she was. Steve was still not sure if he was thankful to Dr. Strange that he couldn’t make her pay or resentful that he couldn’t do just that. He had just told them that she was somewhere where she wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else.

Because she had hurt them. Steve saw the lingering effects. Colonel Rhodes barely left Tony’s side, his eyes flying towards the genius every other minute as if he feared he would vanish or hide an injury. Bruce, Nat and Clint weren’t subtle in their protectiveness, crowding close in all their personal spaces, barely leaving the room they were in.

Neither of the Avengers had left the common floor for longer than it took for any of them to shower and change. Afterwards all of them had been jittery.

All of them kept glancing at Steve as if they waited for him to break.

Tony kept close to Steve, as if he sensed that Steve needed to see him, to know he was there, alive and not chained to some wall, hurting himself and-

They slept on mattresses and the couch in the living room of the common floor for four nights. Although sleeping was a generous term for the disconnected shut eye they got until one of them woke with a start.

Even Bruce cuddled closer when he normally did, needing the reassurance as much as all of them to know they were safe.

On the fifth day Colonel Rhodes had to leave. He hugged Tony long and hard, whispering something to him that made the genius blush furiously and then nodded at Steve.

“Keep him safe.”

“I’ll do my best.” Steve promised.

“I know you will.”

That night Natasha told them she would sleep on her floor, because she actually needed to sleep. Bruce followed her.

Clint, glancing at Tony and Steve, grinned mischievously and told them they just needed to call for them, if they needed him and left.

“I’m not going to sleep any longer on this couch or it’s going to break my back.” Tony declared and Steve almost whimpered. He hadn’t slept more than an hour since their ‘island vacation’ as Tony called it. Without the others here, without Tony here, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.

“You’re floor or mine?”

“What?” Steve startled, looking at the genius.

“You’re floor or mine?” Tony repeated, a blush creeping in his cheeks. “I know I’ll have to grow up soon, hell, I have to travel to Germany next week, but… I thought you were dead.”

It was the first time Tony had said that. There was pain in his voice, lingering fear and something else Steve couldn’t pinpoint.

“I know.” Steve did know. Every second had gutted him, twisted him inside and- He shouldn't do this. He shouldn't indulge his hope. He shouldn't risk Tony like this. He couldn't-

“My floor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I might do something more plot-heavy in the future if you like it.
> 
> Also I have a couple ideas how to proceed. Do you want something fluffy first or the next thing I'm excited to write... :D
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Please leave Kudos and Comments!


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